Monk - Mr. Monk and the End part 1 - Series Finale

[Kirby]

We don't typically discuss Monk here, but seeing as how this fun show is coming to an end, I thought I would start a thread.

I was shocked to see what happened last night, and have a bad feeling about the future of Adrian Monk. The finale has a much heavier feel to it that most episodes.

I'm also a little disappointed about Trudy's 'present' to Monk, that seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

[nx1701g]

^ I watched Part I last night but I was a little upset by the fact that they revealed the guy that murdered Monk's wife in pretty much the opening scenes of the episode. That was a poor choice on their part because you already know who the mysterious "Judge" is.

I'm also pretty sure that they showed the Christmas Gift in one of the previous episodes as being in the cabinet. I remember seeing it before because I didn't know what the hell its purpose was because it was a summer episode. The whole videotape thing was a surprise though. I expected it to be a sonogram of a baby or she was telling him that she was pregnant.

 

[JiNX-01]

^ I watched Part I last night but I was a little upset by the fact that they revealed the guy that murdered Monk's wife in pretty much the opening scenes of the episode. That was a poor choice on their part because you already know who the mysterious "Judge" is.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know who had her killed, too. But I am eager to learn why.

I expected it to be a sonogram of a baby or she was telling him that she was pregnant.

That's exactly what I expected her to tell him.

 

[jep316]

Well even though we know who the "Judge" is we still don't know why he had Trudy killed..plus Monk has always reveled who the guilty party is like Columbo..so the real story is how Monk catches the guy.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, even if you couldn't see the killer's face, his voice was still a dead giveaway, since he sounded exactly like Mr. Incredible...

I lost interest in this show years ago, because it became too formulaic. It started out interesting, as a funny but not insensitive exploration of a man dealing with a serious psychological disability and striving to overcome it. But as the show became a hit, the producers decided they had to keep Monk's schtick perpetually unchanged, so every time he seemed to be getting better they forced him into a relapse, and he became a caricature of himself.

Still, I liked it when the show took a more dramatic turn, and I was invested in the Trudy mystery when I was a viewer. So when I saw this was on, I figured I had to see it, to see how it all got resolved at the end. And the added note of poignancy made the comedic bits go down better. For instance, the scene where Monk was taking the pill and had to separate the colored bits before swallowing them, and Natalie just stood there and watched fondly and acceptingly, understanding that he needed to do this. (On the other hand, they really drove the "Vomiting... followed by death" thing into the ground.)

It's really kind of sad to know that after all those years of searching, the vital clue to Trudy's murder was in Monk's possession all along, and if he'd just opened the gift, he would've had his answers that much sooner.

I found the scene with the therapist unconvincing and badly handled. Sure, saying "Don't give up, I refuse to believe you won't pull through" is what a friend would say, but it's not what a therapist should say in a situation like this. A therapist shouldn't go into denial about the reality of impending death, but should help the patient confront that reality and try to cope with it.

 

[propita]

any spoilers? we're not watching it, but Hubby and I would like to know the end (what's the gift? who's the killer? does monk die? why was trudy killed? etc)

 

[Christopher]

any spoilers? we're not watching it, but Hubby and I would like to know the end (what's the gift? who's the killer? does monk die? why was trudy killed? etc)

Only part one of the finale has aired yet, so we don't know all of that. What we do know:

Spoiler: Monk & the End Part 1

The gift is a videotape from Trudy to Adrian, your classic "If you're watching this, it means I'm dead" message. It turns out she was keeping a secret from Adrian, one that apparently got her killed. We don't yet know what that secret is, since Part 1 ended before she got to that part.

The killer, or rather the man who hired a professional killer to bump Trudy off, is supposed to be just a shadowy, unknown figure at this point, but he recognizably has the hairstyle, the build, and particularly the voice of Craig T. Nelson, who appeared earlier in the episode as a prominent judge who was about to get promoted to the California Supreme Court.

Presumably, Trudy was killed because she discovered something incriminating about the judge. It may have had something to do with the case Monk was working on at the time, involving the disappearance of a nurse, since in the present day, a doctor from the same clinic has been murdered, and Monk's investigation of that case is apparently what led to the hit on him.

Does Monk die? I doubt he will, since this is basically a comedy series. Like they say about Shakespeare, tragedy is where everyone dies at the end and comedy is where everyone gets married at the end.

 

[Gepard]

Woah, woah, woah, wait – Monk aired last night? I thought USA was doing their three nights of Elf thing. Dammit.

 

[Christopher]

^Part 1 of "...and the End" will re-air Friday at 8 PM Eastern, just before part 2 (and will encore three hours later). If you don't want to wait that long, it'll be on at 1:05 AM Tuesday morning. Or you can probably watch it on Hulu or the USA website by now.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

It's really kind of sad to know that after all those years of searching, the vital clue to Trudy's murder was in Monk's possession all along, and if he'd just opened the gift, he would've had his answers that much sooner.

I actually found that to be somewhat of an interesting point behind the episode (and ultimately, the arc itself), his refusal to let go of the one last secret, as he calls the present, between him and his wife is revealed to be the ultimate secret. One tiny bit of a continuity issue (and thats just how I am), there was someone else Monk knows that should have been around, but as it was a one shot character...meh.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Anyone else think that the wipes Monk is using is what's killing him?

 

[Christopher]

^Oh, that's a clever thought (in your spoiler box).

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Yeah, it had hit me when...

Spoiler: continued part of post

they wanted to check everything he was eating, and then that they got from the store. He uses them a lot, so they could have just put a little bit on each wipe, or in the chemical for the wipes. Each wipe would slowly be dosing him with the poison.

 

[IndyJones]

Spoiler: Spoiler

Anyone else think that the wipes Monk is using is what's killing him?

That was my thought as well.

 

[Finn]

If that's the case, it should be affecting Natalie, and Sharona to some degree since they both handled the wipes often.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Well...no...

Spoiler: explanation

Monk handles his own wipes in this episode, thus my reasoning

 

[Cicero]

Is there any indication that the mystery surrounding Natalie's husband will be solved? Has it been already? I stopped watching a few years ago.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Is there any indication that the mystery surrounding Natalie's husband will be solved? Has it been already? I stopped watching a few years ago.

Spoiler: Natalie's Husband

As far as I know, he was simply shot down, no real mystery to it. I can't remember exactly what he did for the Navy, but I remember he died on the course of his duty.

 

[Christopher]

If that's the case, it should be affecting Natalie, and Sharona to some degree since they both handled the wipes often.

Uhh, no. We're not talking about the normal use of the wipes over years, but just in this episode alone. When Natalie was in the grocery store, the hitman took Monk's separate shopping cart for a few moments, enough time to poison something in the cart with a ricin-based toxin. They've been trying to determine what specific item contained the poison. They're assuming it was something he ate, but maybe it wasn't.


The problem with the wipes theory, though, is that ricin is toxic if inhaled, injected, or eaten. Skin contact alone wouldn't cause more than a rash (see http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp). Of course, this show hasn't always bothered with realistic details like that, so they might go that route anyway. For one thing, they didn't describe the symptoms accurately. Ricin poisoning by ingestion would cause diarrhea as well as vomiting, and eventually hallucinations and seizures; whereas poisoning by inhalation would cause respiratory distress, fever, and fluid buildup in the lungs. It also isn't inevitably fatal if one gets medical treatment in time. So they're really playing fast and loose with the facts here for the sake of the story.

 

[Checkmate]

It's painfully obvious that it's the wipes. They've gone out of their way to emphasize that Monk's using them on his own instead of doing the demanding gimme-gimme hand gesture with Natalie. And it's compounded all the more with the fact that the doctor commented on it, applauding him for using them.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

If that's the case, it should be affecting Natalie, and Sharona to some degree since they both handled the wipes often.

Uhh, no. We're not talking about the normal use of the wipes over years, but just in this episode alone. When Natalie was in the grocery store, the hitman took Monk's separate shopping cart for a few moments, enough time to poison something in the cart with a ricin-based toxin. They've been trying to determine what specific item contained the poison. They're assuming it was something he ate, but maybe it wasn't.


The problem with the wipes theory, though, is that ricin is toxic if inhaled, injected, or eaten. Skin contact alone wouldn't cause more than a rash (see http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp). Of course, this show hasn't always bothered with realistic details like that, so they might go that route anyway. For one thing, they didn't describe the symptoms accurately. Ricin poisoning by ingestion would cause diarrhea as well as vomiting, and eventually hallucinations and seizures; whereas poisoning by inhalation would cause respiratory distress, fever, and fluid buildup in the lungs. It also isn't inevitably fatal if one gets medical treatment in time. So they're really playing fast and loose with the facts here for the sake of the story.

Is there something else it could have been, then? Maybe I am wrong, if it's 'painfully obvious' as someone else said, perhaps it's something else Monk is being exposed to, but no one is thinking of.

As for it being fatal, I think the only reason they are saying it's fatal, because they don't know what exactly it is. I've come to understand that Treatment A work for Poison A, but Treatment A for Poison B will either not work, or just kill you on the spot (Well, maybe not quite on the spot, but...).